The Greek summer experience, with learning to boot

By Anna Mazarakis

Harrison Blackman had never been abroad before, but he’d always wanted to see the ancient sites and cities in Greece, so when he saw that a professor from Princeton University would be teaching a summer class in Greece, he jumped at the opportunity to study abroad.

While in Greece, his class studied Greek literature, took Modern Greek language classes and participated in workshops with professional Greek photographers. The students also traveled to various sites across the country to familiarize themselves with the context of the literature and better understand the country’s culture and history, Professor Eduardo Cadava said.

“This is my first time abroad, so I feel like I’ll go back feeling more like a citizen of the world and not just of Maryland,” Blackman said. “I feel like I have a better perspective now on how the world works, evolves and changes.”

Blackman is just one of the hundreds of students who have traveled to Greece this summer – most for the first time – to study Greek history, drama, business, literature, anthropology, or the Ancient and Modern Greek languages, among other subjects.

Representatives from the Tourism and Education ministries said they do not record the number of students that come from abroad to take part in programs in Greece organized by their universities, but the number is expected to have increased dramatically since 1998, when New York University launched its Summer in Athens program, which it says was the first of its kind.

In addition to programs in the classroom, a number of universities have taken students to excavation sites in Greece this summer to learn more about archaeology and to research the ancient world.

“In certain years we were excavating at...